Do you live in an area where there aren’t any Community of Christ congregations? Are you a member who is planning to attend Canada West Mission Conference in Vancouver in September? If you would like to be a delegate, and be able to vote during the business meeting, please submit your name to:

Special Thanks to Robert Peters who baked the cake and ran the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nurturing Spirit Retreat Hills of Peace

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hills of Peace Family Reunion is almost full.

Thank you for your positive response!

All of the cabins and dorms are now filled, however we still have limited space for those wanting to bring a tent or trailer. Any registrations for cabins will be placed on a waiting list. Contact Lisa Neudorf lisa@communityofchrist.ca with any questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

URGENT Male Counsellors needed

Male Counsellors needed for Junior Camp at Hills of Peace

Canada West Mission is in great need of male counsellors for Hills of Peace Junior Camp.

Without enough male counselors, the boys program will be at risk of being cancelled.

If you are able to help us out or know of someone who might be willing, please contact Lisa Neudorf lisa@communityofchrist.ca. Staff need to be an approved Registered Youth Worker (or eligible to become RYW before camp).

Canada West mission centre will offer some of the Temple School “Ministry and Priesthood” courses required for ordination. Though live classes are optimal, elearning classes provide learning opportunities without the difficulties of distance and busy schedules. The price of $20 includes the elearning class, instruction, certificate, and a PDF copy of the course book.

To those seeking a spiritual home, Community of Christ is a welcoming, loving, worldwide faith community that values the worth of every person as a child of God, and provides a safe space for you to explore and deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ and each other.

In Community of Christ, you will receive love and support as you discover renewed purpose for your life through compassionate, Christ-like service that ends suffering and fosters justice and peace.

Thus this newsletter briefly has an action related to our longitudinal issue – Darfur – as well as an issue that hopefully will be heeded before it deteriorates more. Finally, there are some accumulated items that I don’t have the time to revalidate.

Sudan and Darfur have largely been out of the news, except that before leaving office former U.S. President Obama conditionally lifted some sanctions on Sudan. After six months (July 12) that action will become permanent if a review shows Sudan was continuing progress. This act was shocking to many Sudan watchers, including myself, who feel it was based on murky logic (see Current Status, June 25, [UntiAll.org] or the Background links below).

Thus there is urgent need to tell President Trump not to permanently lift the sanctions. Even if one felt progress was being made, six months is far too short, as Human Rights Watch argues, below. Given the President’s use of Twitter, the first action makes use of a tweet and provides additional information. The second action is a petition by a diaspora Darfuri women’s group. It calls for the sanctions to remain and also lists many other conditions (disarm militias, impose travel bans, etc.) that many have advocated for, for many years. Please note a typo in the petition: “seize attack” should be “cease attack”. This is not a high-financed group but their direct connections to people in Darfur provides a valuable voice.

A human right’s lawyer in Malaysia has been charged in connection with her questioning the legitimacy of a raid on a transgender event. Amnesty International believes it is an attempt to silence and undermine human rights work. Please consider taking action, both for its innate rightness and for the signal it sends to Malaysia to uphold human rights before things deteriorate further.

South Africa formally revoked its bid to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Last year it joined Burundi and the Gambia in saying it would leave, sparking fears of a wider flight; many African leaders think the court focuses disproportionately on them. But the Gambia has reconsidered, and last month South Africa’s High Court ruled that its withdrawal would be unconstitutional. South Africa Reverses Withdrawal from ICC [NYT]

On behalf of affect communities in Colombia, a coalition of human rights group have called on an investigation by the ICC of the complicity of executives at Chiquita Brands International regarding crimes against humanity. The company has admitted to having funneld millions of dollars to paramilitaries that killed, raped and disappeared civilians, yet no one has been held responsible. Communities Seek Accountablility

A Few Leagues-Under-The-Sea: It’s Getting Toxic

In research conducted on a couple of the ocean’s deepest trenches (up to 11 km or 6.8 miles) they scientists have found organisms with PCB levels over four times as bad as the world’s most polluted rivers. Humanity’s negative impact on the planet seems to have no bounds, yet another dire sign and call-to-action to regarding our throw-away society: World's Deepest Ocean Trenches Badly Polluted [Economist]

About This Blog

The CWM Weekly Ann­ounce­ment blog keeps you up to date with what is happening in the Canada West Mission. It is usually published every Thursday – enter your email below to automatically receive every new post in your email inbox.